


Through His Eyes

by RegalPixieDust



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 17:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13686159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RegalPixieDust/pseuds/RegalPixieDust
Summary: (MISSING YEAR) When Regina realises that she might have feelings for our favourite outlaw, she retreats to a hidden part of the castle only to have her existence presented through the eyes of a someone who is beginning to care for her very deeply.





	Through His Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> For Liz. Happy Valentine's Day!!! Apologies for the lateness, but I really hope you enjoy this. It pushed me out of my comfort zone a little (which was fun!!!) but I pray this is even close to something you were hoping for. All my love and more, Shay xo

In the beginning, it was just a sweet gesture. It was nothing more than a simple cup of tea delivered to the castle’s library to help her focus. Not to his surprise, she’d thrown little bouts of sass his way, an eye roll here and there, but it slowly became a daily thing. Then he started lingering a little longer, asking her questions about her progress on finding a solution to their Wicked Witch problem, and before he knew it they spent most of their mornings sipping on piping hot tea together, bouncing ideas around. 

Being around her was thrilling. Watching the way her mind works was mesmerising. She’s precise, constantly weighing up pros and cons and assessing every angle to an option. She was even receptive to his ideas, though heaven forbid he criticise her methods or ideas. She’s the epitome of a headstrong woman, a true queen and as refined as they come.

Then came the argument that changed everything, and if Robin’s being honest with himself, he can’t even remember what it was about. But their voices were raised, echoing off the stone walls as Regina used defensive insults as her ammunition, and for whatever reason, all Robin could think about was her lips finally being against his in the way he’d been craving for weeks. So, that’s what he made happen. He gripped at her shoulders mid-sentence, fused their lips together and swallowed her words deep into his chest.

Since then, they’ve barely been able to keep their hands to themselves.

It’s an entirely new tradition. It’s almost identical to the original -  tea and reading first -  but every day they inevitably end up lip locked and breathing heavily against each other, for as long as they can, before their presence is required elsewhere.

She drives him crazy in the best of ways.

She makes this little sound whenever he drags his lips across her jaw; it’s a moan from deep in her throat, one that vibrates within in her chest. It’s like a drug, the tiniest of things driving him into an absolute frenzy, which in turn makes her more ardent. Her hands wander over his body like she’s trying to memorise every groove of him while his hands hungrily pulse and squeeze wherever they can. They get entirely lost in each other while secluded to the confines of the back corner of the library. Out of sight, as hidden as can be, as long as nobody comes looking anyway.

Only today, somebody does come looking.

“Regina!” Snow’s voice echoes from behind them. Robin freezes with his fingers tangled in her long, curled hair when Regina tenses frigidly against his front, tearing her lips away from his to look up at him in a panic. “Regina, are you in here?”

Holding his finger up to his lips, he moves his free hand down to rest at her hip before pulling her with him to slide behind the dark, velvety curtain hanging just to their right. They stand toe to toe, their noses touching, and to Robin’s surprise, Regina actually cracks a smile.

It starts as a twitch in her cheeks, but before he can even process it, she’s trying her darndest to stifle laughter into the palm of her hand. He snorts at her, at her barely audible giggling and tears gathering in her eyes, and his snort is  _ loud _ . Easily loud enough to draw Snow toward them. They both suck in a sharp breath and clamp their lips shut, still trying to hold it together when Snow’s footsteps start to sound closer. Something outside the library must garner her attention because the steps stop and start to become softer until they hear the creaking of the large door closing when she leaves.

The second it thuds behind her, they both exhale into sputtering laughter, and Robin is suddenly mesmerised. Regina’s smile is bright, her cheeks rosy as she sits on the window sill and looks up at him with shining eyes that lock onto his. She stares at him for a moment, a quick second where something obviously clicks in her mind and, just like that, her smile becomes the frown he hates to see.

She stands abruptly, clears her throat, and mutters, “I should probably find Snow.”

Her eyes are trained on the floor as she walks out from behind the curtain and he tries to follow her, calls her name out a few times, but she still walks away and carries her lie all the way with her.

There’s no way she’s reaching out to Snow. With a frown like that, he knows better than anyone that she needs to be somewhere she feels safe. Luckily, he knows exactly where that is, but the least he can do is give her a moment alone before trying to find out what went wrong.

* * *

After marrying the King, Regina was starved of personal space. That was until she ventured up a small spiralled staircase one day, unveiling a humble balcony, a cosy little thing overlooking the forest - untouched and unknown, a perfect escape.

Even now, she still seeks out the comfort it brings when her mind wanders to unwanted places.

After her little hiccup in the library, she slips up the tightly wound staircase, ignoring the resistance of the royal blue velvet of her gown against her high strides. When she steps through the creaking wooden door, she inhales heavily until her lungs feel cold and exhales into the slumping of her shoulders as she leans against the barrier at the edge.

She’s being ridiculous, knows it far too well, but somewhere between giggling like a teenager and gazing into Robin’s icy blues, fate reminded her that she doesn’t deserve to feel the things he makes her feel. Like a knife to her gut, she remembers that letting her heart be open again will only lead to heartache and not necessarily her own.

Regina is still gripping the railing of the balcony when Robin startles her slightly, sliding up silently behind her and wrapping his arms delicately around her middle. He leans in close, his chest pressed firmly against her back as he drops a tender kiss to the exposed skin in the curve of her neck.

“It’s beautiful up here,” he mumbles against her skin. It might have taken her months to find this solace, but it barely took him a week to find out where she retreated to when she needed a moment to think.

As she’s sinking into him, loosening the grip she has on the railing, he asks, “What happened down there?”

Shaking her head, she continues to look ahead at the wide horizon while whispering a less than convincing, “Nothing. I’m fine.”

“Would you like me to leave?” His chin is settled deep in the curve of her neck when she shakes her head a second time. “Alright,” he whispers, unwrapping his arms from around her. She turns quickly, thinking that he misread her response, but before she can say a word, he shows her the large bottle of liquor he let go of her to pick up, one that he’s obviously stolen from the kitchen.

“Where did you get that,  _ thief _ ?” She teases, her bottom lip trapped in her teeth.

When he shrugs unconvincingly, a laugh escapes quickly through her nose as he asks, “Would you care to partake?”

Exhaling heavily, she reaches forward for the unopened bottle and unceremoniously bites at the cork in the rim, pulling it loose with her teeth. Going against every ounce of poise within, throwing all regality to the wind, she plants her ass right against the concrete floor with her legs outstretched, not sparing any concern for how her gown is going to suffer the descent. His smirk is full of amusement when he joins her so they can sit together, thigh to thigh, as they lean their backs against the stone wall of the castle.

The liquor is bitter when she takes the first gulp. It burns the back of her throat on its journey, warming her insides in its path. It’s pleasant and just what she needed, though the comfortable silence is what calms her the most.

Robin has this way of knowing when to speak and when not to, when to act on something and when to hold back, when to follow her and when to leave her be. It’s comforting.

So, instead of talking like she was terrified to, they share the bottle of whiskey back and forth as they watch the bright golden sun descend on the horizon with a warmth in her belly, staying just as they are until she finally feels like she can properly articulate what happened before.

“I got scared,” she mumbles as she toys with the rim of the bottle. “Downstairs with Snow.”

“It was a close call, I know-”

“That’s not it,” she stops him abruptly. To be honest, the close call didn’t bother her at all. In fact, it was almost a relief. As much as sneaking around is fun and adds to it all, she was close to relieved when she thought that they were going to be exposed. The fear and confusion, well, that settled in just afterwards. “We were laughing. We were so close and I was looking into your eyes and I just had this...” she gestures up with her hands, bottle in tow, to reference a kind of explosion, “... moment of happiness.”

Robin takes the bottle and sits it next to his thigh, twisting to sit on his side so he can face her more, confessing, “I’m confused.”

She didn’t expect him to understand fully and doesn’t expect him to ever understand, but that doesn’t keep the words from falling. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” she sighs, “but fate doesn’t exactly think happiness is a very good colour on me.”

Looking at him, she leans in closer, accepting his hand on her cheek, his thumb brushing against her skin as he mutters sincerely, “It’s a gorgeous colour on you _. _ ”

She disagrees, pulling back from his touch. ”Any happiness that comes my way should come with a disclaimer: It never lasts and when it crumbles, it tends to ruin the lives of everyone around me.”

“Now that’s just absurd,” he assures her, tilting his head toward the wall with this glint in his eye, a glint of sadness. Sadness for her self-loathing, she could see that a mile away.

“If only it were… ” she responds dismally before reaching over for the bottle by his thigh and taking a hearty swig. “I’m a curse, which is painfully ironic considering how long I spent trying to curse all of you.”

“You truly believe that’s what people see when they look at you?”

“There’s not much else to see,” she shrugs, lifting the rim of the bottle to rest against the tip of her nose. The warmth in her belly is spreading and leaving a delightful, hazy feeling in its wake. She laughs bitterly at her own expense, “Regina Mills is one dimensional at it’s finest.”

“You’re wrong,” Robin assures as he reaches over to link his fingers with hers, “If you saw yourself through my eyes, you’d…” he lifts the hand that he’s holding, up high to rest just shy of his lips, “...well, you’d see the incredible mother you are.”

“You don’t have to do this,” she sighs against the wall, sinking further into the ground, but he’s having none of it.

“No, listen, please,” he begs, squeezing her hand. “When you’re with Roland or talking of Henry, your face lights up in this way that is more profound than any bright sun or glistening moonlight. If you were me, you’d see the hard worker you are and the lengths you go to keep the people you care about safe, the countless evenings you’ve spent in that blasted library with your nose in those books is proof of that. You’d see the walls built high around your heart, but also how much you’re battling to push through your fears of being trapped under the rubble and let someone chisel it away.”

The tears gather in her eyes as he divulges, threatening to fall with every word he reveals, “I see  _ you _ , Regina. Even if you’ve lost sight of it yourself. You’re the farthest thing from a curse, I can promise you that.”

Her heart is beating fervently, his countless compliments and confessions tickling over her like feathers to her skin. When she reaches up to wipe away at her cheeks, she sniffles and clears her throat, anything to maintain her composure.

“You’d see that I’m falling for you,” he confesses and her breath hitches in her throat. He just came out with it, the statement slipping passed his lips like it was the easiest thing in the world to say, completely unaware that it is exactly what she is afraid of.

She clenches her eyes closed tightly, grits her teeth before releasing the tension in her face, “I can’t let that happen.”

Sighing deeply, he pushes himself from the ground to stand high above her, reaching down and offering his hands to help pull her to stand upright. Against her instincts, she takes his hands and is pulled to her feet with ease, just in time to hear him ask, “Why not?”

“Loving me is dangerous, Robin,” she tries to explain. “Bad things always happen. People get hurt and it can all be easily-”

She’s cut off with a kiss, like the very first time he ever planted one on her, only this time it isn’t as heated. It’s calm. It’s gentle. It’s his way of telling her that he doesn’t care about the risks.

“I’ve never been one for playing it safe, love, not when it comes to the people I care about,” he breathes against her lips, peppering a line of kisses from the corner of her mouth to a soft spot just behind her ear before cloaking her in an embrace. “I’m an outlaw, remember?”

She laughs against his chest, leans into his warmth with her arms tightly wound around him. “Henry would really like you,” she mentions randomly. She’s not sure where it came from, but out of nowhere she could see the way Henry’s face would light up if he ever knew that his mother is smitten with none other than  _ the  _ Robin Hood.

“He sounds extraordinary.” Robin takes both of her hands and squeezes them again before letting them fall to her side. “I have hope that I’ll get to meet him one day, and when I do…” he leans in to peck a chaste kiss on her lips one last time “... I’ll need to tell him how much of a softie his mum really is.”

She narrows her eyes playfully, jabs a finger against his ribs and she threatens, “You wouldn’t dare.”

Robin opens the door to the small staircase and holds it open for her, a coy smile plastered across his face, but she’s not ready to leave this bubble quite yet. “Can we stay up here a little bit longer?”

“Of course,” he nods, letting the door swing closed before following her back to the ground.

Together they finish watching the sun set until they are soaked in moonlight, talking and talking until the sky begins to start a new day and their sacred daily tradition can start once more.

**Author's Note:**

> A million thanks to Britt and Eva for the emergency betas. Y'all the real MVP's.


End file.
